Do you know how green your child’s school is? It might seem like a dream, but there is a way to help schools truly go green, beyond recycling and teaching the basics of eco-education. Mom and activist (among other notables) Jill Buck wrote the basis for her Go Green Initiative (GGI) at her kitchen table in 2002. Since then, GGI has grown to be the largest environmental education program in the world, with 1500 schools, 1.5 million students and over 113,000 teachers in all 50 states (as well as thirteen countries outside the US) participating!
So, how can GGI help your school go green? The very best way - by allowing parents, teachers, administrators and kids to develop a green plan themselves. When your school signs up with the Go Green Initiative (which is FREE), the school’s “Go Green Team” has access to GGI’s wealth of resources, including the five ways GGI can help your school form productive ways to have a successful plan. The GGI Planning Guide outlines the concepts of composting; recycling; environmental education; evaluating the environmental impact of activities (including such topics as indoor air quality and buying school supplies); and adopting a plan of responsible paper consumption. GGI is tailored to the needs of your school, and helps schools find a way for budgeting and implementation. GGI focuses on a thorough process of environmental stewardship. It also helps schools track their success, and has been a major testament to GGI’s own successes. In a recent announcement, GGI announced it has kept over SEVEN MILLION POUNDS of recyclables out of landfills in the last three years, as well as significantly reduced energy, water waste, and greenhouse gas emissions in schools around the world.
So, do not pass “GO” without “going green”! Read GGI’s “Why Go Green” section, and see how you can begin to help your child’s school - and children, and community, and on and on - go green!
Jill Buck is taking GGI to the internet airwaves, starting this Friday, June 27th! Her “Go Green Radio” show premieres at 9am PST/Noon EST on Voice America radio. I’m so thrilled that Jill has asked me to be one of her guests on her very first show, as we discuss Go Green for Kids! I hope you can join us and keep an ear to the radio Friday morning!
I’m all about fundraising for my daughter’s school, but it was getting out of control with the cookie dough this month and the candy that month…people got sick of me asking them not only to give money, but for food they probably didn’t want in their house either! Book fairs are a fav, but thinking in an eco-friendly way led me to FundingFactory, a printer cartridge and cell phone recycling program that benefits schools, sports teams, nonprofits, the environment, and everyone’s wallets simultaneously! Sound too good to be true? Seriously, this program is almost too easy to follow - sign up your school or other organization (for FREE) to get a “Jump Start” kit sent to you. There are a ton of resources to help your school get the word out about the program, including posters, drop-off boxes, etc. (again, FREE). You also have on-line tools to help manage the accounts (hello, FREE!), and you can get rewards in cash or through an extensive rewards catalog with school supplies, office supplies, etc. And, landfills will thank you by keeping these items out and keeping the recycling process going!
Also, if you or someone in your family has a business, you can sign up to support a local school or organization you want to benefit from recycling the ink and laser printers in your office. Here’s a list of items FundingFactory recycles, and how much your group can receive per item. Way better than making your kids roam stores with boxes of M&Ms no one will buy and you’ll end up eating anyway…
Kids love nothing more than an assembly to, um, break up the day. Parents and teachers love the messages that come with great entertainment - if kids only knew they were actually learning something! If you’re lucky enough to live in California or the Pacific Northwest, your kids may have seen these unique entertainers bringing a message of conservation and recycling with a funky twist.
In California, Rock Steady Juggling performs various age-appropriate shows about recycling and reusing, water conservation, and pollution. “The Amazing Adventures of the Recycling Wizard” is the elementary-age program, combining juggling and magic; “Waste Not, Want Not,” a recycling and water conservation assembly for middle school students, combines “juggling, comedy and audience participation.” Check out the calendar to see when Rock Steady might be at your kid’s school, and encourage your schools to find an equally fun and informative program.
Recycleman and the Dumpster Divers, a Washington and Oregon State program, provides an interactive concert also with a recycling flair. Peter Dubois is a Waste Reduction Specialist, and his alter ego, Recycleman, has been entertaining kids for over ten years! Your kids will learn such catchy tunes as “Stinky Stinky Landfill,” “Water Conservation Rap,” and “Save It Don’t Pave It”. Be sure to click on the video to see this not-so-stinky band in action!
To get in the school mood (ha ha), why not visit a schoolhouse museum? You can find historic schoolhouses converted into education centers all over the country. Here’s a sample -
Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Boynton Beach, Florida - We were fortunate enough to live five minutes away from this fully restored schoolhouse museum, located in South Florida. A gem of a hands-on museum for kids as young as two, step back in time and learn about the area’s history through photos, dress up, pretend farming (the ‘milking’ cow is a fav), and an old-time Post Office and General Store, among others. Their calendar is always packed with activities, including story and music times, scavengers hunts, ice cream making, and sidewalk art classes, to name a few.
Discovery Creek Children’s Museum of Washington, DC, also has an amazing array of activities for kids of all ages. Located among four sites, including a stable, botanical, and aquatic gardens, the Historic Schoolhouse includes “12 acres of beautiful majestic hardwood forest, hiking trails, natural rock outcroppings, and a meandering creek.” Seasonal classes about insect lifecycles, natural animal habitats, and more take place both inside the schoolhouse and in nature.
Seneca Schoolhouse Museum, Seneca, Maryland - Located in Seneca National Park in Montgomery County (close to DC and Virginia), the Schoolhouse is open during the school year for “back in time” local history day trips with a costumed teacher. Also available for birthday parties - way cooler than Chuck E. Cheese, if you ask me!
To look for a children’s museum in your area, or if you’re going on vacation, check out the website for the Association of Children’s Museums. There’s still a couple of weeks left before school, and this site might give you that last idea push to keep busy!
Note: This is a recycled post, actually, my first post ever…but in the spirit of Back-to-School, and for popularity’s sake, I thought it was most appropriate to share again…Enjoy!
In 2004, the CEH (Center for Environmental Health) began testing those adorable vinyl lunchbags we’ve bought, borrowed, and gotten for free as promo items for harmful substances such as lead. They found that even small exposures can cause behavioral and hearing problems, and advised people to buy lead-free lunchbags. The problem - um, where are they?
Enter Mimi the Sardine. Cute name, even more adorable product. Mimi’s line of lunchbags are lively, lead free, and lootie-licious! Made from a Swedish cotton fabric coated with a PVC-free, acrylic (not plastic) coating that is Okeo-Tex Standard 100 approved, these lunchbags come in a variety of prints any kid would love to carry all by themselves; plus, the bags are machine washable! Yes, you CAN get out the squished strawberries and spilled apple juice! You may find you’ll want one to sling over your shoulder, too - so check out their mommy-sized shopper!
My last post was about lunchboxes. But what about lunch at home? I used to use a lot of paper goods to make clean-up easier, and my kids especially love straws. For everything. Drinking, painting, magic wands…anyway, aside from chucking straws altogether, there are now much better alternatives for plastic and paperware. Browse around Green Home - it’s an amazing site, but I am particularly fond of their Kitchen section for a papergoods makeover. Can’t let go of brown bag lunches? Buy unbleached, recyclable ones! Do you go through plastic cups like the water that’s in them? These recycled cups are even dishwasher safe. And as for those straws, I love these compostable and biodegradable corn-resin straws. They taste particularly well with chocolate milk, so I’m told…
Have you been to a preschool classroom during lunch? It’s pretty appalling how many plastic bags, straws, foil and plastic wrap, and packaging in general goes right in the trash. Now, I’m not one to deny my girls their beloved drinkable yogurt or granola bars…but I do try my best to use reusable bowls, etc. to help lessen the trash pile. These ingenious “American style” Bento Boxes from Laptop Lunches really opened my eyes to a whole, well, lunchbox of ideas about lunchtime. The containers are lead-free, reusable, dishwasher safe, and totally recyclable. They come in tons of colors (you can order just the interior containers to mix and match as well as the whole Laptop system), AND you get the Laptop Lunch User’s Guide, filled with clever ways to make lunch fun and eco-friendly. The website itself also has a wealth of information about nutrition, meal ideas, and recycling/lunch programs in schools, so look around!
teensy readers - get a 10% discount off your Laptop Lunch order! Use the discount code teensygreen at checkout. The offer will expire on October 31st, but get yours before the schoolbell rings!
For older kids, notebooks are a necessity, but if you’re a paper lover like me, your kids probably have a stack of their own as well. Notebooks all over the house means the ability to draw, write, doodle, and sketch whenever necessary. These paper products will help your kids start the school year off right, and hopefully inspire them!
If you have a girly dreamer in the family, these adorable notebook/journal, made with 100% post-consumer recycled notebooks and printed with veggie inks, will let her pour out her dreams. These wirebound notebooks are more practical for class, made from 50% recycled and 30% post-consumer fiber that contains bright, lined paper with low glare (who knew?). Comes in 1- to 5-subjects for your high schools juggling multiple subjects. And little scientists will love to carry these buggy notepads, also made with 100% recycled content and unbleached paper.
Of course, there’s always an old standby. This classic Composition Notebook with recycled materials works for moms too! Happy writing
All notebooks are available at grassroots, via Design Milk.
This week I’m going to try and cover as much eco-’back-to-school’ as possible, and believe me, there’s a lot of ground to cover. It may be difficult to go to Office Depot and find all the eco-friendly products you want for your kids, but there are a lot of alternatives out there. First a fun one…Remember those fruit smelly pencils? When you were done with the pencil point, you took it out and moved it to the bottom and a new one would appear? They were all plastic and lead and are probably still sitting at the bottom of a landfill…well, fast forward and taa-daa - Smencils!
We love Smencils for so many reasons (besides the fact that they sound so nerdy and back-to-school!) These SMElly peNCILS are made out of recycled newspapers, biodegradable erasers, and recyclable packaging - they wrap newspaper around a standard #2 core (so yes, you can take the SATs with them), and are dipped in wonderful flavors. The pre-scented Smencils come in flavors like bubble gum, cherry, orange, and watermelon, and their smelly-ness is guaranteed for two years! You can even make your own Smencils with the Home Kit! Great for recycling projects at home and in the classroom…Smencils even has a fundraising program, to spread the message of good-smelling recycling without the added calories (M&M’s, anyone?).
Dare we say, ‘Back to School’? An article from National Geographic’s ‘Green Guide’ wants to make you aware that the places your children spend a lot of time may be making them sick. With asthma and food allergies still on the rise, it’s important to know schools and day care centers can adjust to keep your children healthy.
The Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) has a voluntary ‘Eco-Healthy Childcare’ program for daycare centers to use as an eco-guide. Centers must meet at least 20 out of 25 criteria, two of which are required: “no smoking anywhere in the vicinity of children and least-toxic pest control methods both inside and out”. Other criteria include having PVC-free toys, wood furniture, least-toxic cleaners, low-VOC paints and mercury-free thermometers. Find your state’s requirements at the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Early Childhood Edcation.
Building green schools and making eco-friendly changes to existing schools has become a top priority in the development industry. Schools have made great strides in improving not only structurally - using low VOC-paint, building more windows for energy efficiency as well as promoting happiness - but with school’s inner workings, as well. Schools have gotten rid of junk food in their vending machines; begun rigorous recycling programs; and in some cases, buy local produce for the cafeteria. Check out the ten Greenest Schools for 2006, and be inspired! What changes can your schools make to improve their green-ness? Or, what have they already done?
